Pakistan arrive in India at last

The Pakistan cricket team has finally arrived in India, ahead of their first Test and one-day series in the country for six years. The players touched down in New Delhi at 1430 hours on a PIA flight amid tight security arrangements. Pakistan are due to play three Tests and six one-day internationals with the first Test at Mohali on March 8.

The tour had been delayed by a week because of a disagreement over TV rights, but there was no bad blood in evidence at Indira Gandhi airport, where the players, dressed in green blazers and most of them sporting sunglasses, were given a warm welcome from airport staff and wellwishers.

The players were greeted by senior officials from the BCCI, including the vice-president Rajiv Shukla, and were adorned with traditional garlands. Then it was into a coach and off to a five-star hotel on the southern outskirts of Delhi.

Pakistan's last visit to India was in 1998-99, when they tied the two-Test series at 1-1, before going on to win the opening fixture of the Asian Test Championship at Kolkata. It is their seventh tour of India since 1952-53.